Three businesses apply for annexation into Baton Rouge

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REBEKAH ALLEN
rallen@theadvocate.com
April 17, 2014

Costco, Celtic and SAIF Credit Union want to join the city of Baton Rouge.

The three businesses are located just south of the city limits in the area that is being proposed for the new city of St. George. The Metro Council is set to approve the annexation at the April 23 meeting. All three property owners petitioned for annexation, and both city police and fire departments, who will now protect those areas, confirmed the annexation would not increase operational or capital costs, according to city-parish documents. Only properties adjacent to the city line can be annexed.

Annexations are generally initiated by a petition of the landowners. But with larger swaths of land, state law permits annexation to be decided by an election that is called by the municipality after a petition of the landowners. Baton Rouge officials admitted in February they were in talks with Costco, Celtic and LSU about possible annexations, stemming from the looming possibility of the incorporation of St. George. William Daniel, chief administrative officer for Mayor-President Kip Holden, said at the time that many businesses are concerned about the financial uncertainty of being a part of a new city.

St. George leaders are trying to collect 18,000 signatures on a petition to put the city proposal to a vote. The organizers have declined to disclose their signature counts; however they said in January that they had about 10,000.

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